I am absolutely terrified of planes. The idea of being hurtled through the air at hundreds of miles per hour in a giant steel coffin does not sit well with me. That’s why I’m all for trains making a comeback and it looks like they are.
The Web Urbanist reports that the U.S. and Russia just inked a deal that would build a tunnel under the ocean in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia. It would connect with pre-existing railways and allow the countries to transport freight between the two without the use of planes or boats.
Bering Strait
The project will reportedly cost about $100 billion. That’s a lot of money, money that a lot of countries can’t just go spending on awesome, but initially unnecessary, projects like this. The two countries were apparently able to justify the cost since projections put the tunnel at being able to transport 100 million tons of freight a year.
While the initial use will be used for industrial uses, it’s not too far fetched to imagine it also being used for passengers. While some people would obviously be more inclined to fly over the ocean, I’m sure the Pteromerhanophobics (including myself) would be more than happy to take a train ride under the ocean. Considering that bullet trains can now hit speeds of about 200 mph, it wouldn’t take that much longer to reach international destinations.
Besides, underwater tunnels are just the first step to installing evacuated tube transports for 4,000 mph speeds across the ocean floor. Technology is going back to trains so that we can all travel like the folks in Futurama.